A controversial £65m expansion to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has been approved despite widespread concerns about parking problems.

One councillor compared the lack of spaces to the number of lifeboats on the Titanic branding the infrastructure at the Edgbaston site a 'disaster'.

But Birmingham City Council's planning committee heard the main QE building was operating at near full capacity and a new facility was desperately needed.

The scheme, funded by Healthcare UK, will see the Postgraduate Centre opposite the women’s hospital demolished and replaced by a new, partly private, seven-storey specialist facility.

It will provide 138 beds including 72 for the NHS and 56 for private patients, while it will employ 150 people including 97 nurses.

But there was uproar at the fact there would not be more than a combined 101 extra car parking spaces - 51 next to the new building and another 50 on a nearby plot of land.

An artist impression of how the new facility will look at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
An artist impression of how the new facility will look at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The committee was torn on the development but members ultimately approved it in line with recommendations from officers, who stated the parking provision was suitable.

Cllr Gareth Moore (Cons, Erdington), on the committee, was among councillors who failed in a move to defer a decision.

He said: "We made the mistake before with the QE site itself and here we are again with another application without enough parking.

"Our own policy states there should be 216 spaces [for a facility this size].

"We are getting less than half of that, that's crazy.

"Somewhere we have done some analysis to say that doesn't matter. I am pretty sure the same analysis was done on the total number of lifeboats on the Titanic.

"This hospital has been a Titanic disaster from start to finish in terms of the parking situation."

He added: "Until the parking situation is resolved we shouldn't be looking at expanding the the hospital."

There had been huge opposition to the development over parking including two petitions with more than 130 names combined.

Resident associations for Metchley Park Road, St Mary's Road and Abbey Road, Edgbaston and Calthorpe, all objected as did the Harborne Society.

The controversial £65m expansion to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has been approved.
The controversial £65m expansion to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has been approved.

Cllr Matt Bennett (Cons, Edgbaston) spoke on residents' behalf and said: "Parking is a big problem and it is getting worse and worse.

"Simply providing inadequate parking doesn't encourage people to use public transport there is lots of evidence which shows that.

"What is proposed is nowhere near adequate enough to deal with existing problems let alone new ones."

Edgbaston-based property investors Calthorpe Estates, which is redeveloping the Pebble Mill site, also opposed.

Sinead Meally, speaking for them, said: "The area is under immense pressure in terms of parking associated with the neighbouring hospital and university campus, and the proposal would undoubtedly exacerbate those issues.

"The new private hospital facility will operate independently of the QE Hospital, and on a commercial basis, offering very specialist services.

"The facility will attract patients, their escorts and their visitors, who will predominantly travel to the site via car, resulting in additional pressure on the surrounding highway network, to the detriment of local residents and businesses."

But Lawrence Tallon, planning director at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, outlined the demand for the new building.

He said: "The NHS is in desperate need of extra beds, we have fewer than half the beds per head population than France and Germany.

"The shortfall at the QE is at least 70 beds.

"It is operating at 99 per cent full while clinical evidence states this should not be more than 85 per cent.

"Often patients are queuing overnight for a bed which of course is not adequate care for the population."

Addressing the parking issues he said 400 staff had been moved off the QE site to Five Ways adding workers driving to the site had reduced from 72 per cent to 42 per cent while the amount cycling had doubled.

Cllr Barry Henley (Lab, Brandwood) argued that a council masterplan on parking was in the works which would address issues around the QE and University of Birmingham.

Echoing support Cllr Martin Straker Welds (Lab, Moseley and Kings Heath) said: "The NHS is in crisis and we need beds. There is very little investment but thank goodness there is some.

"I do look forward to the (parking) masterplan and have faith it will account for all of this."